Tonight (2017-04-25) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
It was a workshop meeting, so the bulk of the time was spent in discussion around a topic. Although before that some normal agenda items needed to be gone over.
The biggest of those was the Superintendent’s report. Lots of stuff going on, as always. One item stood out to me, which was the high school once again receiving a US News Gold Medal. What struck me as odd, was that a score of 61.7/100 on college readiness was considered ‘gold’ quality. Still, for government work, 360 out of 2,609 isn’t bad.
With that out of the way it was on to the workshop, with the topic of ‘Student Forum’. Unfortunately, there were no students in attendance. It was said that they had received a ‘better offer’. Between all of the various other school activities, they were unable to get any students to tonight’s meeting. Which was the big shame of the night. Great that kids are out doing so much, but terrible that a planned event to ask them about what they thought was unable to get any to show up.
Despite that, they went ahead with the activity. Instead of students, they had most of the administrative staff. Better then nothing, but I don’t see how it could give the students actual views.
Basic topic was what the students thought about school lunches, technology usage, and the high school in general.
Due to both a recent controversy and it being time for the regular report, the Food Services started off and seemed to get the longest time. Kathy (Director of Food Services) did a good job of presenting what she does in her part of the school. She also made the claim that much of the criticism of the food is exaggerated. While the word wasn’t used, I found the similarities to ‘fake news’ most amusing. In this case, that students apparently exagerate, distort, and make up stories of how bad the food is so that they get attention.
The core of the issue is that the federal government requires very strict portion control on the meals offered. And as they reimburse for following those guidelines, the school has opted to go along. Ignoring the apparent unconstitutionality of federal control of local affairs, as covered by the 10th amendment.
Kathy made an interesting comment about ‘if the students weren’t here, we wouldn’t be either’. As usual, I’m probably misquoting, but it should be close enough. The point is, she and her staff are focused on the kids. The idea was agreed upon by many of the other staff present, to such an extent that someone said the students were the customers. A noble idea perhaps, but complete nonsense. Customers pay the bills, students don’t pay anything for school (at least this school).
Following the money, the customer for lunch is the federal government. So long as that remains true, they can expect all of their demands to be followed. The customer for school in general is the taxpayers (who may or may not be parents of students) and the state.
I just find it sadly ironic when school employees claim they are working for the students when no, the numbers clearly show they answer to other entities. Entities that want them to claim to be working for the students, perhaps. In the end, Students are the product here.
To end the food focused portion, Gene (Superintendent) used a nice segue about the HFLCSD app. Pointing out how people look up the menu, using their hand computers. Which brought us to Cindy (Technology Director).
While many points were brought up, Cindy focused on access to the wireless network and filtering internet content.
Network access has been an issue for a while, mostly because the school insisted on adding (technically) unneeded steps. It has been encouraging that they have simplified it as much as they have. Not quiet as simple as connecting to your home network, which should be the standard here. Definitely simpler then it was, which is commendable.
Internet filtering tends to be a sore point for me when it comes up, as it did tonight. Mostly because of the impracticality of it, and how (as a governmental agency) it is a 1st amendment violation.
In a sane world, they would throw up a simple filter (in the name of ‘protecting the children’) and leave it at that. Some things that would be blocked shouldn’t, and wouldn’t be blocked that should. Anyone that cared would just bypass it. In the end, the school doesn’t have the resources to police the internet. Make a decent effort and call it a day, there are more important issues to focus on.
That tools exist for bypassing just such filtering is what makes it laughable. If China can’t maintain the censorship of their internet, what hope does public education have? Which is why it’s a sore point for me, I would hope the head of the department would be aware of the technical limitations of the task. Whitelisting is the only ‘real’ way to control internet access, and it’s cost prohibitive. All other methods are exploitable (to various degrees) by an educated user. Which is what the school should be trying to create, right? Students bypassing the filter should be viewed a sign they have learned how to use the network. One more step towards being adults, responsible for finding their own information.
Last up for the workshop was the High School. They got the short stick, time wise. David (High School Principal) said that was fine, because the other topics were indirectly high school issues.
The core of the high school talk was about drugs, their actual presence in comparison to perceived. This has been a reoccurring topic over the years. Most of the discussion was rehashed from previous meetings, but there were a few tidbits I found interesting.
It was pointed out that the ‘drug problem’ has been with us longer then we have had a civilization, and it will continue so long as we exist. Likewise, in a general sense, what the kids are doing today is what we (collectively) did when we were their age. Depending on how you look at it, that’s either discouraging or encouraging. You decide.
Because no conversation on drugs would be complete without mentioning dogs, Gene made an amusing comment. Turns out there are dogs in the building sniffing for things every Saturday. Not to search for drugs belonging to the students, but as part of a community education class.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the April 25th, 2017 meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education.